Biology and biochemistry students awarded premier Oregon scholarship for graduate research

“Working in a lab that employs methods from various fields of study will be invaluable to my progress as a science professional,” said Aber.

Aber graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Portland where she engaged extensively in undergraduate research. She completed a research internship at the University of Washington, Seattle, which involved the analysis of acoustic data on deep diving predators off Cape Hatteras.

At the University of Portland, Aber received the Presidential Scholarship and the Outstanding Graduating Senior in Undergraduate Research Award.

Aber received the ARCS Foundation Oregon Chapter Scholar Award.

A doctoral student in biochemistry and biophysics, Brittany Lasher’s research interests include computational modeling of biological systems in order to gain insight into function and mechanism. Lasher comes to the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics with a background in engineering.

She holds a B.S. degree from the University of Washington (UW), Seattle, and a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, both in the field of chemical engineering. She received an associate’s degree in chemical engineering from Tacoma Community College in Washington before joining UW.

At UW and Johns Hopkins, Lasher pursued research projects at the intersection of engineering, computation and biochemistry. These include work on enzymatic designs, building a library for classification of helical kinks and modeling of protein purification peptide tags.

“Through the biochemistry and biophysics department, I will acquire knowledge allowing me to connect my past engineering experience with the biological framework, enabling me to tackle a wide range of problems within the biochemistry and pharmaceutical industries,” said Lasher.

She received the ARCS Foundation Oregon Chapter Scholar Award.

Maya Feezell (pictured above) is a doctoral student in the Department of Integrative Biology, focusing her research on the impact that climate change is having on the rocky intertidal areas. She analyzes how community dynamics are impacted by stressors such as temperature, food availability and predator loss.

“I chose to study at OSU for my graduate degree because our integrative biology department has so many incredible faculty doing groundbreaking research and policy work,” said Feezell. “We also have amazing resources for conducting marine science research both in Corvallis and at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport.”

Feezell obtained an undergraduate degree in marine science from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where she conducted research on the effects of thermal stress and food availability on the California mussel in an environmental proteomics laboratory.

Feezell received the Mary Martin Rosenberg Endowed Award from ARCS Foundation Oregon.